Vice President's Secretariat
Vice President Compliments Rotary for Becoming an Important Partner in Union Government’s Efforts for Water Conservation
Kolkata, February 16, 2020
The Vice President Shri M Venkaiah Naidu has stated that organisations like Rotary India can play a leading role in promoting sustainable and inclusive growth by supplementing the efforts of the Union Government and various State Governments. He was in the city today, to attend the Centennial Summit 2020 of Rotary India. He complimented Rotary for becoming an important partner in the Government’s efforts for water conservation as well as its efforts in eradicating Polio in partnership with the Union Government, Who, UNICEF and lately the Bill & Melinda gates foundation.
Shri Naidu said, the history of Polio eradication in India has shown that the Government and committed NGOs can forge effective and successful partnerships. In such a situation, the Vice President hoped to see more such partnerships for the betterment of the communities at large.
The Vice President expressed his happiness at Rotary’s initiative in adopting as one of its thrust areas. He said, while the Jal Shakti Ministry of the Government of India has planned to have more than 100,000 check dams in India in the next five years, Rotary has committed to build 10,000 plus check dams by different rotary clubs of India during the same period. He appreciated Rotary for becoming an important partner in the Government’s efforts for water conservation.
According to Shri Naidu, development can be accelerated if there is an active involvement of all the stakeholders. While the Government frames the policies and programmes, he said, the pace and quality of implementation depends on the participation of people, the civil society organizations, the academia and the private sector. Shri Naidu mentioned the two ethos India believes- ‘living together’ and ‘working together’ in this regard and reiterated that India believes in the tradition of sharing and caring. Charity was not only in the form of donations or giving alms. It also involved setting up of rest homes for pilgrims and providing them free food and accommodation. In the past, it used to be a common practice for the rich to come to the aid of the poor in the villages. He pointed out that though Governments at various levels have been taking measures to ameliorate the conditions of the marginalized sections, the need of the hour is for voluntary organizations like Rotary to supplement the efforts of Government and fill the gaps, particularly in areas like education and healthcare.
The Vice President spoke in length on the various sectors where voluntary service providers like Rotary can extend their support like imparting livelihood skills for youth and women to enable them to supplement their families’ income is one of them. Since about 60 percent of Indians still live in villages, every livelihood project must focus on strengthening the rural economy, he said. “It’s a matter of concern that the number of people preferring to continue agriculture as their main occupation is gradually declining. A host of factors are responsible for this situation and the foremost among them is the lack of adequate returns to the hard-working farmers. I am afraid that if the same trend continues, more and more people will leave farming and look for other types of livelihood. Hence, my suggestion to organizations like Rotary is to facilitate training and imparting of skills for the youngsters to become agri-entrepreneurs”, he added.
Shri Naidu reiterated on the necessity of developing empathy and not sympathy for the less fortunate to make children sensitive to the needs of others as well as the involvement of students in voluntary activities or community-related activities to create a positive bonding between the students and the community so as to enable them learn new life skills. He wished the new Education Policy should seek to promote the spirit of volunteerism among the students and earmark certain marks for such activities.
At the end, The Vice President stressed on ushering peace, which he pointed out may be resultant of humanitarian work and development efforts.
Shri Naidu also urged Rotarians for participating in the Union Government’s efforts of Swachhata Abhiyan, Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao, Yoga, Fit India and Poshan Abhiyan.
Among the dignitaries present on the occasion included the Governor of West Bengal, Shri Jagdeep Dhankar and the State Science & Technology and Bio-technology Minister Shri Bratya Basu.
SSS/MSA
(Visitor Counter : 18